THE FORMATIVE IMPACT OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN`S PERSONALITY
THE FORMATIVE IMPACT OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN`S PERSONALITY

Summary/Abstract: Designed to satisfy a human need less concrete, the entertainment one, video games are expanding their area of distribution among consumers from one year to another. Consumption of video games (gaming) brings both positive and negative contributions to the training and development of the personality of "gamers", influences and motivations being different depending on their age. Direct or indirect results of consumption of video games, outlined in the form of benefits or not, is also a concern in terms of trying to understand how individual development is influenced by this activity. The aim of the present study is to make a radiography of the strengths and weaknesses in terms of the influence of video games on youth development, with a research foundation based on The Critical Incident Technique by J. Flanagan, in conjunction with Scaling Behavioral Anchors by P.C. Smith and L.M. Kendall. The research was made on a sample of 120 students aged between 10 and 11 years, who have been playing video games from the age of 7-8 years, with a frequency of higher than three times a week. The results take the shape of two lists comprising on the one hand the advantages and on the other hand the disadvantages of early exposure to the formative influences of video games. The comparison and the interpretation of the two lists provide a set of conclusions and recommendations of potential formative interest, quantifiable in a possible code of good practice regarding the management of the access to video games given to children in elementary school.

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